Word: heaths
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...whether to join the European Common Market, members packed the green leather benches on each side of the chamber and overflowed into the aisles. The members on the two front benches faced each other like soldiers lined up for battle, with the pro-Market Tories of Prime Minister Edward Heath confronting the mostly antiMarket Laborites of former Prime Minister Harold Wilson. On each side, groups of party rebels sat grim-faced and silent...
...this week's vote, Heath outfoxed Wilson with a brilliant parliamentary ploy. Both party leaders had insisted all along that their members heel to the party whips in the vote; each nonetheless faced the prospect of rebellion among followers committed to the other point of view. The Tories have an overall majority of 25 in the 627-member House, but Heath's party managers counted 30 certain rebel votes in their ranks, leaving the Prime Minister dependent on Labor votes...
Unexpectedly, Heath declared a "free vote," allowing each Tory M.P. to vote according to his conscience, released from strict party discipline. Heath's advisers shrewdly pointed out that while a free vote might add a handful of Tories to the antiMarket ranks, it would make it easier for Laborites to ignore their own party discipline-and in far greater numbers, possibly as many as 70. Though Wilson continued to insist that his followers vote strictly according to the party line, it was certain that enough Labor members would break ranks to ensure a pro-Market majority...
Immense Asset. Besides finessing Wilson, Heath's move considerably improved his image among British voters. According to the latest polls, fully 51% of Britons are still opposed to joining the Common Market, and only 32% are in favor. But the British are resigned to joining Europe, and 82% believe that membership is inevitable. By making the vote a free assertion of Parliament's collective will. Heath assured that the result would be accepted by the British people in a way that a decision achieved only by party discipline could never be. That could be a big asset when...
...geopolitics. As Defense Secretary Melvin Laird put it: "If the Russians have a superior military force, they can gain their political objectives throughout the world without the use of weapons. There is no military ad vantage to overkill, but the political gains are tremendous." British Prime Minister Edward Heath outlined this gloomy scenario in a recent speech to the House of Commons: "The Soviets may calculate that eventually the sheer disparity of military strength would leave Western Europe with no convincing strategy. Political pressure, shrewdly applied and backed by the threat of greatly superior military force, could compel...